Alien Relic Hunter

Chapter 358
Ke Lan turned his head and glanced at the cargo boxes behind him again. Although there were no labels on the cargo boxes, he had already read the manifest before boarding the transport ship... More than [-]% of the cargo in these boxes, They are all "protein lumps" that use cockroaches as raw materials. In addition, there are several old water cycle treatment equipment and a batch of medicines.

This batch of drugs is also not used to treat radiation sickness. Most of them are nutritional supplements with extremely low production costs, which are used to replace some of the vitamins and minerals that cannot be obtained from protein blocks, and the rest are all Pain relievers and sedatives.

These goods were raised by several different mining companies, as were the miners suffering from radiation sickness—they came from 11 mining companies under five consortiums, and these mining companies belonged to the "Alpha Star Mineral Development Alliance" ".

The "Alpha Star Mineral Development Alliance" was established 30 years ago. Its main purpose is to solve the aftermath of these miners suffering from radiation sickness. Every once in a while, the companies in the alliance will gather together the sick miners These supplies were sent to the "sick village". This time, it happened that the Mitsui consortium was in charge of transporting people and supplies.

The "Alpha Star Mineral Development Alliance" announced to the outside world that out of humanitarian spirit, they established a complete sanatorium on the "South Sixteenth District" space station, and every unfortunate miner who fell ill could be properly treated...for Therefore, they even shot a so-called "documentary" to describe the comfortable life of these sick miners in a nursing home... Of course, this documentary was not shot on the space station at all, and those so-called sick miners, It's just actors hired by the development alliance.

As for what the real "sick village" is like, no one knows at all—even the captain of the transport ship will only stay in the unloading area of ​​the space station for a short while, and never go deep into it.

All the records of the exploration were sealed up, making it difficult for those with insufficient authority to access. As for those media, they were all given a gag order, and it was strictly forbidden to report any news related to the South Sixteenth District.

It is impossible to achieve this level with the energy of the Mineral Development Alliance alone. This can only show that the Ark official has also acquiesced in this matter.

After all, in high-radiation mining areas, it is difficult for a fully automatic mining robot worth several million credits to have a working life of more than two hundred hours.Manufacturing a robot like this requires a lot of precious resources, but the minerals mined during its short working life are simply not worth its own wear and tear and depreciation rate...

A miner who only needs to pay a salary of a few thousand credits a month can work for at least two to three months before he experiences physical problems.

To feed a miner does not need to consume energy crystals, nor does it need silicon chips and precision circuit boards that are easily scrapped in a high-radiation environment. It only needs protein blocks, water, and a bed that allows people to lie down and sleep , is enough.

For the ruling class of Ark, population is also a resource, and it is also a resource with high cost performance.

From the perspective of mining companies, not to mention efficiency, the cost of manual mining is obviously much lower than that of using fully automatic equipment... Moreover, they will never worry about not being able to recruit enough miners. Although the monthly salary is not very high, it still has a great temptation for the people at the bottom of the society - the salary level of the factories and service industries on the Ark is even lower than that of the miners, those who have no background and capital, and no For people with any ability or special skills, becoming a miner may be the fastest way to make money.

"Anyway, there are protective clothing and anti-radiation drugs. If you leave after only one or two months, you should not be so unlucky to get radiation sickness..." Many people had this idea when they filled out the application form.

Judging from the data given by the Mitsui Foundation, the ratio of the lucky to the unlucky is about three to one, that is to say, only one out of every four people will suffer from radiation sickness... In terms of mortality, miners are considered low-risk occupations.

Few of those who signed up to mine would think about what would happen if they became one of the unlucky quarters.

The current standard radiation sickness treatment on the Ark costs [-] credits for a course of treatment, which is almost equivalent to their three-year salary, and none of these miners can work in the mine for three years...

Ke Lan suddenly thought of a sentence: Probability is zero if it is not your turn, and [-]% if it is your turn.

And the people in this cargo hold, except for the two of them, are all poor people with a [-]% chance.

A slight vibration came from around the cabin, and Ke Lan knew that the transport ship had left the port at this time and began to drive towards the "sick village" floating in low-earth orbit.

The movement of the transport ship caused a brief commotion among the miners, but it subsided quickly... Radiation sickness has drained their physical energy, and for these people, even talking is a very strenuous task , let alone move your position.

A lot of people were lying on the ground in such a mess, their skinny bodies trembling with the floor of the cargo hold.

A miner started to vomit, but he didn't have the strength to get up from the ground at all, and the vomit that gushed out of his throat was poured back into the trachea-his body began to twitch, his feet kicked slightly, and his face gradually began to twitch. It turned blue and purple, and the two eyeballs protruded from the sockets, as if they were about to roll out of them... After about two or three minutes, he stopped struggling, and the hands that were holding his throat loosened, and slid down to his body on both sides.

His chest no longer rose and fell, his pupils began to dilate, and he died.

The miners who were sitting looked at him with indifferent and dull expressions on their faces. During these two 3 minutes, no one was willing to step forward to help him... They seemed to have become numb to death, or maybe, it was I don't want to waste energy on strangers.

Ke Lan didn't move either, not because he was as cold-blooded as the other miners, but because he noticed that there were two miners with a familiar pattern tattooed on their bodies... The last time Ke Lan saw this pattern, it was there A "missionary" who pestered him endlessly.

These two miners belong to heretical sects!
And... Their identities in the sect may not be ordinary!
As far as Ke Lan knows, ordinary believers of heretical sects will not tattoo this kind of emblem on their bodies, at least he does not have such emblems on the people of the Arasaka Consortium or those exiles who entered the bottomless sinkhole.

(End of this chapter)